Celebrating the life and legacy of John H. Johnson 1918-2005

JOHN HAROLD JOHNSON was the people's publisher. He built a legacy celebrating the achievements and beauty of Black Americans, and they, in turn, honored that legacy by paying tribute to both the dream and the dreamer.

"People say he was a great 'Black' publisher, but I worked for him for 52 years, and it is my testimony as a reporter and historian that considering the depth from whence he came, and the height he climbed and the obstacles he overcame, he was the greatest of all American publishers,

Black or White," EBONY Executive Editor Emeritus Lerone Bennett Jr. said at the funeral service for the media giant.

Former President William Jefferson Clinton escorted Johnson's wife of 64 years, Mrs. Eunice W. Johnson, into the service and paid tribute to Johnson as a "man I liked and admired." Clinton, a fellow Arkansan who in 1996 presented Johnson the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, said: "John Johnson had a vision of keeping hope alive by showing Black people faces of hope." Clinton noted that Johnson was one of millions of Blacks who fled the Jim Crow South for a better life in the north. "Out of this swarm of hardworking, family-loving men and women carving out their own version of the American Dream," the former president said, "one man stood out because his dream was bigger and he had a vision for how to achieve it."

Media broadcasters Tom Joyner and Tavis Smiley lauded Johnson as a "man of action." Smiley said Johnson died "a masterpiece of magnificence." He also praised Johnson's commitment and independence. Remarking on Johnson's $500 loan against his mother's furniture to launch his first magazine, Smiley said to much applause, "Mr. Johnson took that $500 and built a media empire that 60 years later is still No. 1 and still 100 percent Black-owned."

Many dignitaries attended the funeral service for the media mogul held at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, but hundreds of private citizens waited outside in the hot sun for the chance to bid a fond farewell to the man Bennett called "an American original" who had a relationship with the people that went "beyond polls and focus groups."

Mourners began lining up nearly two hours before the 11 a.m. funeral service began. Those not able to get inside waited outside the chapel until the end of the three-hour ceremony that was filled with poignant and amusing anecdotes by Johnson's friends and business associates.

Bennett added that the "unprecedented upsurge of emotion at his death proves that the people knew him and loved him not because of the money, not because of the awards, but because he was, in Gwendolyn Brooks' terms, 'the real thing.'"

Johnson Publishing Company headquarters, located on downtown Chicago's famed Michigan Avenue, was the focal point of the two-day celebration. The 11-story building, designed by Black architect John Moutoussamy, overlooks Lake Michigan and Grant Park. Thousands gathered and formed long lines outside the building to view the publisher's bier in the two-story glass, marble and steel entrance, draped in black-and purple mourning bunting.

Celebrities and program speakers gathered at the building the morning of the funeral for breakfast before being transported in nearly 50 gleaming black limousines to the service.

Following the three-hour funeral service, more than 1,000 invited guests returned to Johnson Publishing Co. for a repast and reception that lasted until the early evening hours.

The day before the services, Johnson lay in state in the lobby of Johnson Publishing Company, his polished mahogany casket surrounded by red roses. And the people came. They came by the thousands. So many came that the five-hour visitation period was extended by an hour to accommodate the mourners.

Silently, slowly, reverently, pushing walkers and baby strollers, with toddlers in tow and oxygen tanks, they came. They carried early issues of EBONY, recent issues of EBONY and Black history books. They carried autographed copies of Johnson's biography, Succeeding Against the Odds. They wore church hats and police uniforms. They wore jeans, shorts and suits. They represented hip-hop and be-bop. They stood outside in the hot afternoon sun--and they didn't complain.

In two remarkable days, with lines that wound around Chicago's downtown streets, and around the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel, they came from around the country to bear witness to the man who in 60 years of publishing EBONY changed America with words and images.

Johnson, whose business empire also included Jet magazine, Ebony Fashion Fair and Fashion Fair Cosmetics, died of heart failure in Chicago on August 8. He was 87.

An 8-foot-tall portrait of the late publisher dominated the lobby of the company headquarters. The Johnson family--his wife, Mrs. Eunice W. Johnson; daughter, company President and CEO Linda Johnson Rice; son-in-law, Mel Farr; and granddaughter, Alexa Rice--greeted mourners at the public viewing. Alpha Phi Alpha and Sigma Pi Phi fraternities conducted farewell rituals.